How Do I Get My Kid to Learn About Water Sources and Water Conservation Issues?

Water is quickly becoming one of our most precious resources. Environmental concerns show that conserving water is crucial to a healthy planet. Kids need to learn about water’s importance as a resource to help maintain necessary water levels.

• Take your children to a local watershed. Everybody lives in a watershed so knowing your “watershed address” is necessary to begin an intelligent dialogue about our most important natural resource.
• Discussion about neighborhood water issues can begin around your kitchen table, the classroom, or your place of worship. Simple queries such as, "How did that creek get its name?", "How big is our watershed?", or "Is our watershed healthy?" often lead to answers that spark a child’s interest in her backyard stream. These conversations foment discussion of culture and history.
• Language skills can be honed through nature journaling.
• Nature journals hone many cognitive skills. Science, math, and communication are naturally taught through projects that encourage careful observation, data collection and documentation, analysis, and reporting.
• Some schools are fortunate enough to have access to field trip destinations and forward-thinking educators that are willing to engage parents and organize investigations. Schools and parents can take trips to a hiking trail, an estuary to observe aquatic life at low tide, or to the banks of a river for an ecology lesson by a resource professional.
• With a little forethought, field trips can involve special needs children as well.
• Learning events are nicely capped off by a picnic on a beautiful spring or autumn day.¹

References:

1. Paul Bugas. Community Resources Teach Kids About Water and the Environment